• A US Supreme Court denied Apple’s appeal to continue charging fees for sales through the App Store.
• Now Apple has to allow developers the option to fulfill purchases outside of the App Store.
• The so-called Entitlement Program has several rules and stipulations developers need to abide by including allowing Apple to audit their accounts.

This week Apple’s appeal to uphold its anti-steering policy in the App Store was denied by the US Supreme Court which means that previous a ruling handed down still holds water.

In that ruling, which Apple both won and lost (similar to the outcome for Epic) Apple was told to allow developers to direct users to alternative payment options. This would essentially allow a developer to bypass the so-called Apple Tax which the Cupertino firm takes from every purchase that happens on its store front. This fee can be as high as 30 percent and it’s long been a pain point for developers.

On the back of the appeal being denied, Apple has amended its rules for in-app purchases.

Unfortunately, the new system is limited to the US so a developer here in South Africa for instance, would still have to abide by Apple’s rules and fulfill purchases through the App Store.

For devs in the US, there is now an application process that needs to be followed and several rules that need to be abided by. You can read more about the Entitlement program here.

“Developers may apply for an entitlement to provide a link in their app to a website the developer owns or maintains responsibility for in order to purchase such items,” reads Apple’s developer guidelines. “In accordance with the entitlement agreement, the link may inform users about where and how to purchase those in-app purchase items, and the fact that such items may be available for a comparatively lower price.”

App creators will also still need to offer the option of paying via the App Store.

However, this doesn’t shrug off the cost of the “Apple Tax”. As reported by 9to5Mac, Apple will charge developers a 12 percent commission if they are a member of the App Store Small Business Progam and 27 percent if they aren’t. Developers who are hoping to find a loophole to avoid paying that commission may find their app removed from the Entitlement Program or removed from the App Store altogether.

“To help ensure collection of Apple’s commission, developers are required to provide a periodic accounting of qualifying out-of-app purchases, and Apple has a right to audit developers’ accounting to ensure compliance with their commission obligations and to charge interest and offset payments,” Apple said.

For those wondering how Apple is going to track this, the firm seems to be wondering the same thing. The firm told the court, “Although developers are contractually obligated to pay the commission, as a practical matter, with hundreds of thousands of developers with apps on the U.S. storefronts for the iOS and iPadOS App Stores, collection and enforcement will be exceedingly difficult and, in many cases, impossible.”

We find the fact that Apple can request an audit of a developer’s accounting a bit of an extreme move. This feels like a massive overreach on Apple’s part but let’s see how this plays out, especially with the tech firm admitting that policing the Entitlement program is going to take some work.

Epic Games chief executive officer Tim Sweeney outlined several issues the game maker found with this new policy. The CEO called the program anti-competitive and said it introduced friction to the purchase process for users.

As mentioned, this program is only applicable to developers in the US and we don’t foresee Apple expanding the program, especially since it predicts it’s going to have a tough time enforcing it.